Hold the phone. Last night at the Oakley Headquarters in Lake Forest, CA, minds were undoubtedly blown and worlds were majorly rocked. The People Crew's video "Good Look" premiered and Bryan Fox's and Scotty Wittlake's film "The Rascals"opened up the show.

Bold statement but "The Rascals" - in many people's opinion - showed up the main act. Not that "Good Look" wasn't amazing but no one saw the opening film coming.

Wittlake and Fox's video follows a season with all their closest buddies at Mt. Baker and described it as "a bunch of old guys trying to stay young". "The Rascals" cuts right to the core, the roots, and the meaning of snowboarding to all of us. No bullshit. No heli shots, HD film, or slow motion clips, it's emphasis is on why we all keep riding year in and year out. The days in the trees under dumping skies, soft buttery lines, gigantic powder slashes, landing waist-deep and being surrounded by all your friends. The crowd in the theater was hooting, hollering, and going off in response to the feeling "The Rascals" exuded. Jake Blauvelt, Mark Landvik, Pat McCarthy, Temple Cummins, Forrest Burki, Shaun McKay and more bring the video to life as they turn and burn all over Baker. With tree runs you thought you only dreamt about, fun pillow drops, and windlips galore, this flick and unique perspective brought us all back to our home mountains and amazing days riding with homies. Words of advice: get "The Rascals" in your life immediately.

Moving on to "Good Look". With the vibe of the previous film still buzzing throughout the theater, you could sense the anticipation for another video that would generate the same reaction and natural high. Not to worry, Pierre Minhondo, Justin Eeles, and Sam Hiltner's latest project did just that and then some. Following suit, "Good Look" reminded us of why we got into snowboarding in the first place and gave us that warm fuzzy feeling all over again. They didn't skip on one bit of riding - showing us all aspects and styles with an all star cast. JP Walker, Eero Niemela, Eric Jackson, Joe Sexton, Simon Chamberlain, Shaun McKay, Lauri Heiskari, Heikki Sorsa, Aaron Biittner, Torstein Horgmo, and friends to put it simply, sent it. This mixture of talent, personality, and friendship provides for a super successful and impressive movie.

Lauri Heiskari claimed the opener and got it started off right. Backcountry chutes and cornices to burly rail transfers and gaps, Lauri covered all his bases with a f-ing bang. The rest of the crew kept the level and energy up, slaying pretty much everything you could imagine. The street shredding was impeccable alongside insane...and I mean insane, big mountain riding that got the whole crowd out of their seats ready to run for their shred stick to find the nearest snow possible. It was all there with flare.

Enter Eric Jackson as the closer. No one saw this coming and people pretty much passed out from excitement. To say E-Jack outdid himself would just be stupid and unencompassing. Eric's part sealed the deal for most people that this movie might be the best one of the year. Yeah, I said it. This dude is straight up out of his mind, loony tunes, amazing at snowboarding. With a larger than life personality to match - this part made me laugh, shout "holy shit" and "oh my god" on multiple occasions, and get up for a standing ovation. The tricks E-Jack was pulling and features he was sending off of in the backcountry were progressive, ballsy, and bad-ass. Pure beast. That's the only way to describe it.

Other highlight of the night: Austin Smith's wizard staff.

There you have it. Claiming one of the top movies of the year (knowing that there still are a few to be seen) and yes, we know that "Art of Flight" exists. Big ups to all who were involved in both films, you lit a fire underneath everyone's ass to get out, shred, and keep the dream alive.

Photos: Janos Palko

The DC team dropped into Mt. Hood for a hot second to take over High Cascade Summer Camp. And really, who could blame them? It's more than halfway through the summer and top-to-bottom laps are still the norm, the park set up is pristine, ready and waiting, and tons of riders are getting some serious on-hill quality time up there.

Watch as Global Pros Aaron Biittner, Iikka Backstrom, and Lauri Heiskari, and DC Am riders Jody Wachniak, Anto Chamberland, Peter Horak, and more as they snowboard their faces off.

Bail edits will win every time. People relish in watching other people eat it - it's a fact of life. On that note, thank the heavens for DC's Iikka Backstrom & Devun Walsh. They've just posted the full-on crash section from their year-long video and blog project, "Polar Opposites".

Why is this amazing, besides the fact that it's people falling over and over again, you might ask? Because these guys go huge, that's why and that results in huge bails.

This project has been a major success so far - teaming up these two particular pros was genius in my book and on top of all that goodness, DC pros Lonnie Kauk and Lauri Heiskari make appearances.

So while you're waiting for the finished full length product (set to release at the beginning of the season), take some time and revel in the carnage that was inevitable in the making of this film.

This past weekend Snowboarder Magazine held it's inventive new contest "America's Next Top Pro Model" at the summer shredding glacier on Mt. Hood, Oregon in the world acclaimed Windells snowboard park. If you missed our coverage from the first day, pop-in over here to check out some video shorts from the "High-Ollie" and "Best Jibber" contest.

Going into day two of the contest the 20 pro riders, all riding their new insignia snowboards, were tasked with three more on-snow mini-events. This time the schedule for the day started with the "Spin to Win" contest, followed by the "Biggest Air" and then capped off with the carnage-filled, crowd-pleasing "Chinese Downhill".

Rather than force your eyes to go numb by actually reading, go ahead and check out these vids we whipped together. (We're not aiming for quality here, obviously. Our apologies.)

For banger photo coverage you'll have to head over to Snowboardermag.com. It's their signature contest so they have the legit coverage in the works... we were more like the annoying friend of a friend that showed up and out of pity was allowed to hang out.

Spin to Win:



Biggest Air:



For footage from the Chinese Downhill you'll have to wait with bated breath for the official Snowboarder Magazine video edit (coming soon to a website near you). We totally missed it... but we were told that yes, indeed there was plenty of spitting, shoving and carnage. Breaking thru the finnish line first was the unstoppable Fin Lauri Heiskari, followed by American badass Bryan Fox, with another Finnish luminary, Eero Ettala, coming in third.

After shredding the hot snow all day the riders and the crowd moved down the hill to the Windells Campus where the pro's put on their philanthropist game-faces and started hawking their own pro-models to the Windells campers in a silent auction.

Each board sold to the highest bidder, and the money for all the boards was collected and given to the charity chosen by the rider who received the highest bid out of all the boards. That rider who received the highest bid out of everyone was the revered Eddie Wall, who brought in $300 bucks for his Forum pro-model. The auction pulled together a total of $1909.00 that was donated to St. Judes Hospital, Eddie's charity of choice.

With each mini contest, including the five on snow events and the silent auction, the riders stacked up points that went towards determining the overall rider who would win the title of "America's Next Top Pro Model". Throughout the weekend there was an undeniable standout. Lauri Heiskari, on his DC Snowboards XFB Pro board, won the Highest Ollie, Chinese Downhill and Biggest Air contests, and even placed third in the Spin to Win, making him the most winningest rider of the weekend and earning him the crown of America's Top Pro Model. If that's not some bragging rights for DC Snowboards and Lauri's R&D skills than we'd like to know what is.

Besides checking out all of the coverage online, be sure to pick up a copy of Snowboarder Magazine's November issue to see America's Next Top Pro Model in all it's glory with the aesthetics of print.

"Danny Kass, you are still in the running to becoming America's Next Top Pro Model."



Snowboarder Magazine was kind enough to let Grind TV check out their first ever summer contest "America's Next Top Pro Model" held at Windells Camp on Mt. Hood Oregon. Editor Pat Bridges (standing in as Snowboarding's own Tyra Banks) and the entire Snowboarder Mag crew invited a slew of top professional riders up to the glacier with one requirement: they must have a pro-model board coming out this season.



An interesting array of pro's have graced the summer riding camp with their presence this weekend. From MFM to Eddie Wall to Lauri Heiskari to Danny Kass; you've got your contest killers and you've got you're shred-porn stars - and just about every breed of rider in between.



The riders battled it out for two days, earning points during each of the five "mini contests" held up on the glacier. Be sure to head over to Snowboardermag.com to check out the full coverage.


The first contest the riders had to anti up to was a regular old ollie-off.